Furbish (and English) Speaking FURBYs!

You may recall Hasbro's hit toy some years back - the FURBY. You might have also heard the FURBY is back this year. The modern FURBY is outfitted with what HASBRO is calling EMOTO-TRONICs technology. This combination of robotic and speech technology makes the FURBY a lifelike and intelligent toy.

The tagline on Hasbro's FURBY website reads "The new FURBY can speak HUNDREDS of words and understand DOZENS of phrases and commands!" The FURBY is actually a bilingual critter in that it understands both its native language (Furbish) as well as some English. (Versions for German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian are also available.)

While the Hasbro site offers little detail on the Furbish vernacular (besides an interactive demo), don't worry, there are plenty of FURBY fans filling the void. One site in particular offers indepth documentation (and analysis) of Furbish, as well as English-to-Furbish and Furbish-to-English online dictionaries.

The FURBY's motor and linguistic brains are actually powered by Sensory, Inc.'s cutting edge RSC-4128 IC. This single chip provides the FURBY's multilingual speech recognition/synthesis as well as coordinated and complex motor controls, all at a very low price tag. (Furby's retail less than $40 USD.)

What you probably were not aware of is the fact that FURBY toys were once banned from the NSA (National Security Agency) in Maryland, because it was said they could "learn." Evidently inability to learn is one of the prequisites for a job with the NSA. ;-)

Dah doo-ay wah!! (Furbish for "big fun yeah!")